Hikind Says City Blocked His Bus Shelter Ads Calling For Deportation Of Alleged Nazi War Criminal

One of the campaign's posters. Click to enlarge.
One of the campaign’s posters. Click to enlarge.

Assemblyman Dov Hikind claims that the Department of Transportation has blocked his attempt to put up advertisements calling for the deportation of a Queens man believed to be a Nazi war criminal on bus shelters near the man’s home.

Hikind announced a campaign in early March to roll out MTA posters and ads urging the community to call for the deportation of Jakiw Palij, 91. He also launched a petition calling for the same.

The ads ask residents “Would you be a Nazi’s neighbor?” According to the pol, Palij, of Jamaica, Queens, was a guard in a Nazi labor camp, a charge the accused denies. Hikind, though, said the U.S. Justice Department has ordered Palij and others deported – but can’t do so because no country will accept him.

Hikind wants him sent to Germany.

“Germany created the Holocaust,” said Hikind in a press release last month. “They financed it. They paid for the uniforms and the gas chambers. Let Germany take responsibility for these Nazis.”

The ads never made it to bus shelters as planned, though. The pol signed a contract with the company that manages shelter advertising for the DOT in February, but the ads were never posted. The DOT could not explain the delay, according to the Daily News.